


Unexpected Guests

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Gen, House Party, Invitations, Surprises, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-02 20:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1061327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanksgiving at the Eppes' house does not go as expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Guests

 

“Amita! I didn’t expect to find you here!” Alan exclaimed, pausing before the grocery store exit.

“Hi, Alan,” Amita greeted Mr. Eppes as the clerk rang up her items.

“Here for Thanksgiving sales?”

Amita shrugged. “I guess you could say that. Just thought I’d get a bit of corn and cranberry sauce, you know?”

“You didn’t need to get that, I already did,” Alan announced, motioning to his cart. “Then again, you never know how much you might need.” Alan began calculating. “There’ll be four of us—you _will_ be at the house for dinner Thursday, right? Four o’clock?” Surely Charlie had invited her!

Amita blinked. “Yeah, sure, I’ll be there,” she agreed, nodding slowly. “That sounds good.”

“Great! See you then!” Alan smiled and turned away.

=

Charlie’s chalk squeaked as he scribbled another equation near the top of his blackboard.

P (X1, X2) = exp. [-1/20 + X3]...

As Charlie wrote, he berated the hunched form of Larry sitting nearby. “You can’t just take her to a restaurant, Larry. Thanksgiving is basically the Holiday of Cooking!”

“But you know I can’t cook, Charles!” Larry protested. “And Megan already suggested using a wild card date this Thursday—”

“Alright then, use your ‘wild card date’ and bring Megan over to my house,” Charlie cut in. “Dad and Don won’t mind at all and it’ll be better than going out for cheeseburgers.”

Larry bristled. “I’ll have you know that—”

“Be there at four,” Charlie called out cheerfully as he flipped his headphones onto his ears.

=

“Colby, David, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?”

Colby shrugged. “I don’t know. Sit around the house, read a magazine...”

David didn’t have much enthusiasm either. “All my family’s out of town, so I’ll just probably grab a milkshake somewhere.”

“Well, that tanks.” Don suddenly felt bad for his buddies when he thought of his dinner with Dad and Charlie. “Hey, why don’t you come over on Thursday for dinner at four? We can just chill, eat, and watch the football game.”

The two considered and eventually consented. “Hey, what about you, Megan?” Colby called over to their fellow agent.

Megan laughed. “Sorry, but I have a date with my man Larry,” she declined, grinning cheekily.

“Right, guess it’s just us guys,” Don declared. “That’ll be cool.”

=

At four o’clock on Thursday, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Charlie called. He opened the door, expecting Larry and Megan. When he recognized the visitor’s face in the luminance of the porch light, he froze.

“Hi, Charlie,” Amita smiled at him.

Charlie blinked, jaw hanging slightly ajar. “Um. Hi, Amita...?” He soon recovered his manners and scooted aside so she could enter. Charlie was so confused by her unexpected appearance that he left the front door open as he shuffled after her.

“The food smells good,” Amita commented lightly as she set down her purse.

Charlie shifted from one foot to the other. “So, what brings you by?”

Amita half-turned, eyebrows lifting in surprise. “Your dad didn’t tell you he invited me?”

“Ah, no.” Charlie lifted a finger. “I’ll be right back, so just make yourself comfortable.” Then he rushed into the kitchen.

“Where’s the fire?” Alan asked lightly as he stirred the potatoes boiling on the stove.

“You invited Amita for dinner?!” Charlie hissed.

Alan frowned in puzzlement. “Didn’t you?”

“No! Ugh, not that I wouldn’t have wanted to, but I—I just wasn’t expecting...” Charlie ran a hand through his hair.

Abruptly Charlie heard someone call from the other room, “Mind if we come in?”

“Hi, Megan. Hi, Larry,” Amita greeted the couple pleasantly.

“Hi, Amita! Charlie suggested we join the family for dinner,” Megan explained. “I’m glad to see he invited you too!”

“Oh, no, it was Alan who invited me.”

“...Charlie, you aren’t planning on making this a formal thing, are you—?” Don started down the stairs and then froze. Megan, Larry, and Amita were all staring at him innocently from below. As calmly as he could in his moment of shock, Don turned and went back up the stairs without any word at all.

Charlie burst out of the kitchen, looking around wildly. “Where’s Don?”

Trying desperately to conceal her smile, Megan answered, “He went upstairs.”

With a groan, Charlie raced after his brother. “Don, it’s not what you think—!”

“Charlie, I invited Colby and David over!” Don interrupted. “I thought it was just going to be us guys, you know? Why are Amita and Megan here?”

Charlie massaged the bridge of his nose. “I invited Megan and Larry. See, he didn’t have any good place to take her to dinner so I just said he could come over here, and then Dad invited Amita without even telling me—”

“So this is Dad’s fault!” Don declared.

Charlie nodded vigorously. “If he’d told me Amita was coming I wouldn’t have invited Megan and Larry—”

“—and I wouldn’t have invited Colby and David!” Don agreed fiercely. The brothers stared at each other with sulky expressions on their faces.

Alan greeted Colby and David while trying to hide his surprise and when he turned around he found his sons scowling.

“What?” he asked.

Don and Charlie both directed an I-can’t-believe-you sigh at him and didn’t answer. As he followed them into the living room Alan hoped they wouldn’t keep glaring at him during dinner.

 


End file.
